Fast Baked Potato

Baked potatoes are a super cheap and healthy meal option.  Perfect for lunch or dinner.  What I love about baked potatoes is that you can jazz them up with absolutely any topping that takes your fancy!  By cooking them in the microwave speeds up the process a lot, however you do loose some of that lovely crunchy skin.   If you use this method the skin is kept dry which helps to improve the texture.

Ingredients

• One medium potato (about 180g) - the floury varieties in NZ are best - Agria, Ilam Hardy, Laura, Red Rascal, Fianna

Method

1.    Wash the potato and prick all over with a sharp knife.
2.    Dry the potato well with paper towels and place on a plate in the microwave.
3.    Cook on full power for 2 3 minutes then use tongs or oven mits and turn the potato over. Dry the potato and the plate of all the moisture and put back into the microwave.
4.    Heat on full power for a further 2 -3 minutes.  Remove the plate and leave the potato to stand for a minute, as it will continue to cook.  Check the potato is soft by pushing a sharp knife into the centre.  If it is still hard at all return to the microwave for another 30 seconds.

Note: Every microwave is different - after the first cook check to see how cooked your potato is and adjust the second cooking time so that the perfect softness is reached.

5.     Split potato in half then mash the centre with a fork, or scoop out and mash, season with salt and pepper then return to the scooped out skin.  Top with any flavours and tuck right in.

Some tasty filling options include…

• A little fried onion with bacon and cheese
• Tinned tuna and sweet corn with freshly ground black pepper
• Panfried mushrooms and chives
• Or even just some good old butter with salt and pepper